Hong Kong says « stop » to the ivory trade !

On Wednesday January 31 2018, the Hong Kong deputies widely spoke in favor of the progressive ban on the sale of ivory in their country.

Thus, a law forbidding the domestic ivory trade has been passed and will lead to the end of this trade in 2021 in Hong Kong.

The introduction of this law is a historical moment, as Hong Kong is considered as the major site for the sale of ivory in the world.

The ban on the white gold sale in Hong Kong by 2021 could thus have an impact on the mobilization of other concerned countries, either for transit, provenance or consumption. With the vote of this law, Hong Kong followed the example of China, where the ivory trade has been punishable by law since January 2018 !

We’ll note that international ivory trade has been banned since 1990, but Hong Kong has been authorized to dispose of the ivory stockpile established before this decision. According to the environment defenders, traffickers took advantage of this international authorization to smuggle on a large scale, participating to endanger the survival of elephants. 110000 elephants have disappeared in Africa and Asia in the last ten years, bringing their number on the surface of the planet to only 415000.

The law passed by the deputies, in addition to banning the ivory trade in Hong Kong, add a fight against the illegal ivory trade and take actions to strengthen the existing legislation. This leads us to hope for a real decrease in the number of elephants killed for their tusks in the years to come.